Wow, I can't believe it's day 3 and am just starting to write about what an amazing time I'm having. There's an incredible group of athletes here, about 15 total, plus the incredibles- my coach KP, Gordo, Alan Couzens, and Justin Daerr.
We arrived Sunday around 2ish, got settled in Hotel Arizona right in downtown Tucson and then chilled until dinner where we met everyone and laid out the plans for the week ahead.
Monday kicked off with a swim. The mellower group left for the ride up to Madera Canyon at 7:30 sans swim, and those of us that swam followed at 9am. That was an epic, to say the least, route. Not to mention it was windy as hell which made for some stellar Kona training! Total time was just under 6hrs. After that it was chill and dinner.
Yesterday we headed out early for Mt. Lemmon. Everyone started out together and quickly spread out once into the climb. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. I was expecting much colder temps on the ascent, well and descent as well ha, but it turned out fabulous. At the top I downed a coke and powerbar and then flew downhill with Marilyn McDonald which was rad. I don't think I hit the brakes once!
After that I did a short 25ish min t-run and then we all headed to the pool for about 40mins before it closed to get in an ez recovery swim. Gordo was doing his "ranger swim" workout which is 10x100s with 10 pushups in between so I copied and got in about 7 at the end. Fun stuff ;)
Today I actually woke up feeling stellar- totally unexpected haha- so opted for the 40mile (actually ended up being 46miles) ride with the "peppy" group led by JD. After Gates Pass we had about a 20mile flat section where we split into two groups, one in front that left 1min ahead and then JD, Josh, forget the other guy's name, and myself playing chase. We planned short pulls to paceline ourselves efficiently in order to catch the first group but I did myself waaaaay in after 6 or so pulls where I basically hammered my legs flat OOPS! hehe. So then I discovered we were going to do that set again, but this time I left with the first group which was way mellow so from there back to the hotel it was just steady effort.
Now I plan on napping until my 1hr run before dinner. However, training overload does crazy things to your reasoning and cravings so I had my first Diet Coke since about 5-6 yrs ago (yes, I'm anti sodas and all other fake foods) so napping isn't looking too plausible haha.
Anyway, I'm hoping to recover from my TT effort today with good food and sleep as tomorrow's the Oro Valley (spelling?) LONG swim and moderate ride back to the hotel.
I'll be posting again Friday or Saturday if I can drag out energy to type lol.
Paying the Piper. Big Run post Big Party
9 hours ago
